标签归档：sciencenews

Eleven years ago, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn. The spacecraft’s long journey, however, is nearing an end. Last year, NASA granted the orbiter one last extension—through 2017, when the fuel for its thrusters will run out. Now, the spacecraft has made its last flyby of Dione—the fourth largest of Saturn’s more than 60 moons—revealing its final images of the celestial body’s pockmarked surface, The New York Times reports. In October, Cassini will make its final flybys of another smaller moon, Enceladus, known for its jets of water vapor and ice.